Welding systems reside at the core of the modern industrial age. From massive automobile assembly operations to automated manufacturing environments, these systems facilitate joining in ever more complicated manufacturing operations. One such example of a welding system includes an electric arc welding system. This may involve movement of a consumable electrode, for example, toward a work piece while current is passed through the electrode and across an arc developed between the electrode and the work piece. The electrode may be a non-consumable or consumable type, wherein portions of the electrode may be melted and deposited on the work piece. Often, hundreds or perhaps thousands of welders are employed to drive multiple aspects of an assembly process, wherein sophisticated controllers enable individual welders to operate within relevant portions of the process. For example, some of these aspects relate to control of power and waveforms supplied to the electrode, movements or travel of a welding tip during welding, electrode travel to other welding points, gas control to protect a molten weld pool from oxidation at elevated temperatures and provide ionized plasma for an arc, and other aspects such as arc stability to control the quality of the weld. These systems are often deployed over great distances in larger manufacturing environments and many times are spread across multiple manufacturing centers. Given the nature and requirements of modern and more complex manufacturing operations however, welding systems designers, architects and suppliers face increasing challenges in regard to upgrading, maintaining, controlling, servicing and supplying various welding locations. Unfortunately, many conventional welding systems operate in individually controlled and somewhat isolated manufacturing locations in regard to the overall assembly process. Thus, controlling, maintaining, servicing and supplying multiple and isolated locations in large centers, and/or across the globe, has become more challenging, time consuming and expensive.
One such challenge relates to management of welding consumables (e.g., wire, gas, flux, contact tip and/or consumable electrode). Conventionally, welding consumables are often tracked and ordered by operators or supervisors responsible for the welding process. This generally involves manually inventorying and keeping track of projected production needs and then ordering supplies long enough in advance so that production may continue. Manual processes such as are involved with ordering and inventory activities are time consuming and often require duplication of efforts by multiple people and departments. When orders are finally placed, mistakes can occur as catalog and/or part numbers are given to suppliers. Additionally, suppliers and distributors often have trouble planning for expected demands, since knowledge of actual product usage may not be gained until the order is actually placed.
Another challenge relates to financial accounting of welding consumables (e.g., wire, gas, flux, contact tip and/or consumable electrode). In the industrial environment, resource planning can have an impact on profitability. In order to maximize profitability, various cost reduction strategies have been implemented, for example, “just in time inventory”. With the advent of “just in time inventory” and other cost reduction strategies, the significance of resource planning has increased since improper resource planning can lead to potentially harmful results (e.g., failure to have necessary welding consumable(s) when needed).
Yet another challenge relates to production control. Conventionally, records of production control (e.g., quality of welds produced) have been kept manually by an operator or supervisor responsible for the welding process. Such manual processes are time consuming and often lead to inconsistent and/or inaccurate records.
Due to the problems described above and other problems associated with conventional systems, there is an unsolved need for a system and method for managing welding consumable(s).